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People Quotes by P. J. O'Rourke

140 People quotes by P. J. O'Rourke

All People quotes P. J. O'Rourke’s page

P. J. O'Rourke pokes fun at politics, economics, and social issues. He jokes that government would be illegal to sell and that punishing the poor doesn’t end poverty. He also points out how journalists and politicians often live comfortably while others struggle.

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Crazy old people are our entire source of polling information.

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First and foremost: Feed people.

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You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money.

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Liberals consider people to be nuisances.

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People love to be told what they know already.

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People are not ants or bees. We do not reason or love or live or die collectively.

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Politicians are always interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs.

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I've been a New Yorker for ten years, and the only people who are nice to us turn out to be Moonies.

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Cats possess so many of the same qualities as some poeple that it is often hard to tell the people and the…

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Poverty can't be eliminated by punishing people who've escaped poverty.

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From National Lampoon, you go directly to Saturday Night Live, because it's a lot of the same people.

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That happy sense of purpose people have when standing up for a principle they haven't really been knocked down for yet.

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There's one more terrifying fact about old people: I'm going to be one soon.

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We will win an election when all the seats in the House and Senate and the chair behind the desk in the…

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Smoking is very bad for you and should only be done because it looks so good. People who don't smoke have a…

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The commies are the only people on earth who think Star Wars will work. If they're that gullible, maybe we should have…

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Even the dumber parts of our government are not run by idiots. These are ordinary people like us, doing a job. By…

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The neo-hippie-dips, the sentimentality-crazed iguana anthropomorphizers, the Chicken Littles, the three-bong-hit William Blakes- thank God these people don't actually go outdoors much,…

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Californians are people who insist on growing their own vegetables, but they won't dig up the pretty lawn, won't plant anything for…

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Some people have facts; these can be proven. Some people have theories; these can be disproven. But people with opinions are mindless…

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The inherent purpose of American government is let people seek their own goals and to encourage them to be responsible on the…

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The preamble to the Constitution states: "We, the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish…

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Like most sensible people, you probably lost interest in modern art about the time that Julian Schnabel was painting broken pieces of…

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There's nothing inherently lame about electricity. I've got a basement full of power tools that all operate with electricity, and they're manly…

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Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not…

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Masochists are people that have pleasure confused with pain. In a world that has television confused with entertainment, doritoes confused with food,…

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Modern elites live in bubbles of liberal affluence like Ann Arbor, Brookline, the Upper West Side, Palo Alto, or Chevy Chase. These…

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Then there was communism's weak-tea sister, socialism. Socialists maintained that we shouldn't take all the money away from all the people since…

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The real slums are another matter. The bad parts of Tondo are as bad as any place I've seen, ancient, filthy houses…

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…the poor of the world cannot be made rich by redistribution of wealth. Poverty can't be eliminated by punishing people who've escaped…

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When [George W.] Bush was elected, I think they thought I would have some sort of special "in" with that administration, to…

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Bob Wallace was my editor at Rolling Stone when I first started writing there, and he's a wonderful editor. I was in…

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I'd known the people at Rolling Stone for a while. I'd gone to them with a piece I'd done on Beirut for…

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Wealth is, for most people, the only honest and likely path to liberty. With money comes power over the world. Men are…

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Political systems must love poverty-they produce so much of it. Poor people make easier targets for a demagogue. No Mao or even…

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There are 1.3 billion people in China, and they all want a Buick.

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You've got to understand, people are motivated by fun. And they should be.

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The idea of a world where all people are alike - in wealth or in anything else - is a fantasy for…

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In Japan people drive on the left. In China people drive on the right. In Vietnam it doesn't matter.

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People who are wise, good, smart, skillful, or hardworking don't need politics, they have jobs.

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More by P. J. O'Rourke

I'm fascinated by political enthusiasm.

In comparative terms, there's no poverty in America by a long shot. Heritage Foundation political scientist Robert Rector has worked up figures showing that…

The Democrats said, "We don't know what's wrong with America, but we can fix it." The Republicans said, "There's nothing wrong with America, and…

At Epcot Center the Disney corporation has focused its attention on two things greatly in need of Disneyfication: the tedious future and the annoying…

So-called Western Civilization, as practised in half of Europe, some of Asia and a few parts of North America, is better than anything else…

My whole family can talk. They are all car salesmen. They are all funny.

It was Ronald Reagan who used to say that the 10 most frightening words in the English language are, "I'm from the federal government,…

Gun violence has cost us too many political leaders, and hardly ever the worst ones.

Pete Seeger is a modest, unassuming, cheerful, and kind-natured man. He's a good folk singer, if you can stand folk singing. And he's such…

Journalists are notoriously easy to kid. All you have to do is speak to a journalist in a very serious tone of voice, and…

I like to think of my behavior in the sixties as a 'learning experience.' Then again, I like to think of anything stupid I've…

I'll be 56 this year, I've got two kids, and I think it's probably time to go back to writing one-glove jokes.

Something that comes to us, some gym shoe that comes to us as a result of child labor from a brutal dictatorship, where people…

Russians not only vehemently despise blacks, they believe Africa begins at the Ukraine border.

Now, do I think the baby boomers tend to be self-absorbed? I do.